Theme Of Childhood In Oryx And Crake

Jimmy’s unusual childhood in the book Oryx and Crake In Margaret Atwood’s book, Oryx and Crake childhood plays an important role in the lives of all the characters. Talking about Jimmy, there are constant flashbacks to his childhood which explains how his childhood shaped his whole life. The story takes place in the future where Jimmy lives with his parents in a special compound isolated from the rest of the world. His father works at OrganInc Farms and is a major part of the Pigoon project (Atwood 22). The people who are part of this compound are very logical, smart and scientifically oriented. However, these intelligent people who work in the plant are in general emotionally distant, they do not share the special …show more content…
His emotional distance from other people results him to hide his feelings. He mostly shares his feelings with his pet altered skunk Killer, which is a birthday present from his father. He develops a strong relation with his pet and becomes more detached with his parents. He prefers not to talk to his parents and does not care about them anymore. However, his sole source of happiness is also snatched away when his mother leaves him and takes his pet skunk with her. That is another major loss he suffers after his nanny leaves. Although he mourns for months after his mother leaves but he is not sure if the grieving was for his mother or for his pet (Atwood 61). Growing up, he becomes very distant from his parents as he doubts the confession of her mother that she loves him a lot in the letter which she leaves before vanishing. The compound authorities arrange a counselling for Jimmy to express his feeling about his mother leaving him, but he thinks that it is a waste of time as he does not know how to express feelings to others (Atwood ). This shows that Jimmy is never welcome to share his thoughts with his parents and hence he is eventually unable to express his feelings even though he wants …show more content…
As he does not get very affection from his parents, he always wants to make sure that he does things which will make his parents love and admire him more. He is isolated and does not have a strong emotional relationship with any other person. As he grows he grows more apart from his parents. He does not care about what his parents think of him and their arguments does not affect him anymore. His behavior is odd as compared to other children who receive affection and attention from their parents. A child should only be concerned about learning and growing in his own ways not worrying about what his parents think about him. He is basically deprived of happiness by his parents. He is never allowed to have any toy, pet or a sibling which he wants. Moreover, the few things or people who make him happy are taken away from him, for example his altered skunk pet and his nanny. Thus, Jimmy is a lonely, uncertain, doubtful and emotionally introvert as a